Problems installing Lilo on 14.2 RC1 64bit

[PelleB]

Hello,

I have tried to install Salix to sdb on a Lenovo H50-55, everything goes fine until I get to the Lilo installation, where the installation stops on "Installing the Lilo bootmanager"-screen. It does not hang or lock up, if I hit enter the installation goes on until the end. I have tried both advanced and automatic mode, MBR and first block options, I never get an EFI option but the installation program recognizes the EFI-partition.

The BIOS is set to compatibility mode, or else I can not start the installation disc, there is a Windows 10 partition on sda (which is a solid state), which the Lilosetup does not recognize. All files connected with Lilo seem to be copied to the hard disc, lilo.conf in /etc the rest in /boot nothing in /boot/EFI and nothing to the EFI partition.

Per B

[djemos]

You cannot install lilo on 64bit. There is elilo for 64bit. Skip lilo and choose elilo instead. But using elilo cannot boot windows. Elilo cannot see windows boot manager. I suggest to use grub instead. Grub has to be installed to sda.
I have a lenovo g50-80 laptop and can boot windows 8.1, slackel, salix, ubuntu using grub. I have all these distro's on this laptop.

[PelleB]

I hope it is elilo that comes with Salix 64-bit. Anyway, it seems that it can not boot Salix, which is the problem. I got Windows with the computer, if I can not boot it, I will just leave it there and find a way to boot it if I need it.

So, is there a simple way to install Salix 64-bit on an EFI-system?

[gapan]

Yes, don't install lilo. At the next step, the installer will allow you to install elilo.

In my PC, it is possible to install both lilo and elilo. And then I can switch to UEFI/legacy mode before boot and it will boot with either of them. I'm guessing yours is not that forgiving in allowing lilo to be installed for some reason.

[PelleB]

I choose "skip" on the lilo install and did not get any chance to install elilo, it went directly to the question what the hardware clock is set to.

The BIOS is set to compatibility, that is both UEFI and "legacy", last time I started the DVD by choosing the UEFI entry in the startup menu (of the computer, F12 directly at startup), there were two for the DVD. I choose English GB and Swedish keyboard for the installation, used two partitions set to 8300 one as / one as /home. I tried to set them to 8302 and 8304, but then the installation did not recognize them. Both are formatted to ext4.

[gapan]

I'm not sure how that compatibility mode is implemented in your case, but if it didn't provide you with an option to install elilo, it's obvious that it thinks you're in legacy mode, but then again, you aren't. I would suggest either trying with UEFI mode (preferably) or legacy mode separately.

[PelleB]

I did. In UEFI mode I can not boot the DVD.

[gapan]

What happens? Do you get a menu to select language? Are there any error messages?

[PelleB]

I do not even get the device (boot) menu if I hit F12 (boot menu of the BIOS), Windows 10 starts, that is all.

Please note that the EFI-partition is recognized and written to fstab during installation. Should that not be enough for the installation to offer elilo in stead of lilo?

I have tested Slackel 14.1 live, I can mount the EFI partition and copy files to it (tested with a text file), so it does not seem to be read only.

What should I try next?

[gapan]

Try going into the UEFI settings. There should be a timeout option in there somewhere. It's probably set to zero. Increase it something comfortable. You should then be able to get a boot menu. You should probably boot the "EFI DVD" option, or similar.

Another thing you could try is dd the iso to a usb stick and boot with that.

Access to the EFI partition doesn't mean that your system is detected as UEFI. It's only just a partition with a readable filesystem after all.